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Omar, the Tentmaker
“y^vEATH to Omar, stitcher of tents!
I The bastinadoes for him who clares defy the Wise and Holy Ones of Islam ! Death to the Saracen who harbors Christian dogs under his roof !”
Arms folded, face serene, he faces them. They have rent his robe to rags with their nails, torn his grey hair, spat upon him. On the one side lies Mahruss, his more-than-son and pupil, dead ; on the other kneels the young Christian holding the Cross to his breast. Before them the fanatic rabble with their barbed whips and Hassan,
Governor of Nishapur, weakly protesting to salve his conscience of the deed he means to commit.
“No whips your hands can wield can touch my Soul,” says Omar, the Tentmaker, serenely. “This body is but the house wherein the Self lives, which is I ; burn down the house and the Soul of me shall, escape thru the ruins to the space beyond the farthest stars where I shall stitch the sky itself for a tent.”
“He who tampers -with the Koran shall not know the de
lights of the Hotiris in Paradise!” barks the mob, surging closer.
“I would have saved you — hem — for the sake of our green days,” Hassan says uneasily, fondling his greasy beard with a hand ablaze with jewels, “but what can I do? You have been warned repeatedly, and now — to shelter a Christian who prays thru the nose — it is too much !”
Omar smiles quietly. “The winds of Life have blown us
far apart since that day in Imam’s garden close when we three clasped hands and swore to share good fortune, I and Nizam and thou. We are as the sand grains swept along the Waste. Yet in remembrance of those old days I would ask one thing of you, Hassan — let this youth go ! By the memory of the taste of the Wine of Life on your own lips do not break the bowl before he drinks.” The uneasy fingers with the rubies set into the nails worry the pendulous lips. “What can I do?” shrugs Hassan, “am I Allah that I have the powder to give life? Can I stay th( whirlwind even if I would?”
( Fifty-four )
By DONALD CALHOUN
Illustrations by John Ellis
OMAR, THE
TENTMAKER
Fictionized by permission from the Richard
Watson Tully production, from his play of the same
title. Directed by James Bates Post. The cast:
Young and starring Guy
Omar Khayyam
Shireen
Nizam U1 Mulk
Hassan Ben Sabbah
Shah of Shahs
Mother of the Shah
Rose Dione
Little Shireen
The Crusader
The Executioner
Omar’s Father
Zarah
Mahruss
Little Mahruss
Emissaries of the Shah..
George Rigas and jSordon Mullen